Re: [CR] Re. Italian frame I.D. / Ideor bikes

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Date: Mon, 26 Jul 2010 06:50:08 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Peter Jourdain" <pjourdain@yahoo.com>
To: Greg Lone <gwlone@yahoo.ca>, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
In-Reply-To: <256907.88934.qm@web53706.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [CR] Re. Italian frame I.D. / Ideor bikes


Hi, Greg ---

Ideor was an Italian marque, appx. 1946-1963, headquartered in Milan. I owned a 1960 Ideor Asso Olimpic, sold by Montrose Bike Shop in California back in the day. The top Ideor models featured early Columbus tubing. Lower models used Mannesmann tubing. They are very similar in style to Olmo and several other Italian makers of the era and there has been some conjecture that they may have been, in part at least, a prison-built bike---that is, a bike built by Italian prisoners. If they were, they were built to a high spec and very nicely done.

The Ideor serial numbers were stamped on the non-drive side seat tube cluster---at least mine and every other one I've seen was. They were also stamped on the steerer tube.

The company also built city bikes, etc. CyclArt at one time had a green, early-post-war ladies city bike for sale.

Chuck Schmidt at velo-retro.com has an excellent reproduction of an Ideor catalogue which displays the various models. I heartily recommend that you buy one, even though his shipping special may have expired. Well worth it.

Ideor at one time sponsored a professional racing team. They existed in 1954 at least, as a Spanish team, and the great cyclist and cycling personality, Raphael Geminani, rode for them, as well as the Spanish rider Salvador Botella Rodrigo. Their team color was purple, and they had really cool jerseys with the Ideor typeface. I've seen one of the jerseys at a L'erocia website. I looked for the link, but it's old and doesn't work. Here is a link to their team standings----

http://www.cykelsiderne.net/ploegfiche.php?id264

Depending on the model, Ideor machines featured either Ideor-branded Magistroni headsets and seat collars, as well as Magistroni cranks, and Campy Gran Sport components. As you went up the line Campy cranks, headsets and other parts replaced Magistroni. They take a very low-stack-height headset, often hard to find. Your model, if it has Columbus tubing, and having Magistroni rather than Campy headset and cranks, would have been in the middle of the line, along with my Asso Olimpic. But it would be the same FRAME as the top of the line. The only difference (unless you have a Mannesmann tubing version) was in the components.

Here are photos of my 1960 64cm frameset, which I liked very much (it rode beautifully) but later sold when I moved from Italian machines to British ---

http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k220/VintageCyclist/1960%20Ideor%20Asso%20Olimpic/

Very little else has been published on the web regarding Ideor. I have seen frames and bikes dating from the late '40s to the early '60s. Their racing bikes are well worth obtaining, and a track machine is especially desirable. As far as scarceness, I usually see an Ideor for sale perhaps once or twice a year. And virtually every one which I've seen were sold in California when new.

As far as decals go, there was the large IDEOR Asso decal on the down tube, the winged lion band decal on the seat tube, lovely model decals on the fork blades, a smaller winged lion decal on the top of the down tube, a small silver "Made in Italy" rosette on the top of the top tube, just behind the head tube, and a Columbus tubing decal on the seat tube, just below the seat cluster lugs. There was also usually a distributor/retailer decal on the lower section of the seat tube. Please see my photos for shots of most of these, including the location of the serial number.

Hope this provides some info.

Cheerio,

Peter Jourdain
Whitewater, Wisconsin USA


--- On Mon, 7/26/10, Greg Lone wrote:


> From: Greg Lone <gwlone@yahoo.ca>

\r?\n> Subject: [CR] Re. Italian frame I.D. / Ideor bikes

\r?\n> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org

\r?\n> Date: Monday, July 26, 2010, 1:53 AM

\r?\n>

\r?\n>

\r?\n>

\r?\n> Hi list. As Mark Bulger pointed out a number of Italian

\r?\n> makers used these lugs. I have a early 60's Ideor which uses

\r?\n> them. My Ideor is fairly similar to the mystery frame, but

\r?\n> it has nicely thinned lugs and is equipped with Campy "long"

\r?\n> eyeletted dropouts. It also doesn't appear to have a serial

\r?\n> number , although I have never had the fork off to check the

\r?\n> steerer tube for markings. Just one more possible make to

\r?\n> consider.                                       

\r?\n>  As an aside, are Ideors fairly uncommon? There doesnt

\r?\n> seem to be much mention of them in the archives , or on

\r?\n> the net. Does anyone have a photo of a better model Ideor

\r?\n> from about 1962. Mine is in nice original condition except

\r?\n> someone painted over the factory light gray with silver.

\r?\n> possibly they wanted a Cinelli but couldn't afford one. At

\r?\n> least they left the red chromovelto on the headtube and

\r?\n> seattube. Were there originally decals on the top tube or

\r?\n> downtube? Mine has Campy hubs and derailleurs with Ideor

\r?\n> marked Magistroni headset and Magistroni senior cranks. It

\r?\n> must be fairly close to the top of the line.

\r?\n> Thanks

\r?\n> Greg Lone

\r?\n> Langley B.C.

\r?\n> Canada